Najwa Zebian

And I never knew what they meant
when they said, 'time heals',
until
I felt free

Life is not fair,
but
we can choose to be
fair humans
even if life
or other humans
choose to be
unfair
to us.

I realize now that a lot of the rush and hustle I adopted in my day-to-day life was merely an escape from the present moment.

Change You can draw a path for your life and have all of your goals set. You can change yourself as much as possible and change things around you just to reach those goals. Here’s the catch. Never underestimate the power of fate. It can knock down the highest of goals that seem guaranteed in your life. Plan, yes, and decide, yes, but be prepared for plans not to work. If they don’t work despite your hardest efforts, there must be a reason. You may not be able to see the reason at the time, but you will one day, maybe even years later. Did your efforts go to waste? If you don’t learn from them, then yes, they did go to waste. Even after changing yourself and your surroundings for the sake of reaching that one goal, you may realize that it was waiting for you at the place where you started, when you were the true you who did not need to change or be changed. Change for yourself, not just for a goal.

The ultimate remedy for fear is self-trust. But how do I trust myself? By seeing yourself as the leader of your life.

The reality you live in is partially up to you. The fantasy you live in is entirely up to you.

Often what stops us from moving forward with change, whether it’s learning how to dance or leaving any kind of relationship that no longer serves our authentic selves, is our fear of what exposing our authentic selves to the world would feel like. It’s one of those things that could

Broken Wings Don't break a bird's wings and then tell it to fly. Don't break a heart and then tell it to love. Don't break a soul and then tell it to be happy. Don't see the worst in a person and expect them to see the best in you. Don't judge people and expect them to stand by your side. Don't play with fire and expect to stay perfectly safe. Life is about giving and taking. You cannot expect to give bad and receive good. You cannot expect to give good and receive bad. Does it happen? Yes, but don't make that an excuse for you to keep doing what you know is wrong. Don't blame life for what you do. That is so selfish and ignorant on your behalf.

He never loved you, but he loved
the reflection of the man he saw in your
eyes.
But listen to me, my friend.
You never loved him either.
You just loved being the queen.
You loved being the sun.
You loved being the woman behind a
great man.
You never loved him.
You loved having something to give.
Someone to fix. Someone to please.
You see, in love, you don't get what you
want.
You get what you think you get.

Change for yourself, not just for a goal.

Reflecting is essential, but regret should not ground you in the past. It should make you grateful that you have a conscious mind that realized right from wrong. It should give you strength to wisely use your present to make your future better.

If you cannot appreciate what you don’t have before you have it, you will not appreciate it after you have it. Period. We thrive on the idea of being able to change our surroundings to suit our needs, and we promise ourselves to change so many things once we finally get that one wish.

We had a moment once when I felt that we were one, in the same feeling, in the same soul. But I've come to learn that these moments can imprison us for years when they were only moments followed by many more that were not the same.

They won’t try to shame or pressure you into doing what you’re not comfortable doing or what doesn’t resemble you. They won’t think of how your actions reflect on them. They meet you where you are, exactly the way you need to be met.

You turn your back on yourself when you allow every closed door to stop you from moving on to the next one. Sometimes we choose to stand at a closed door and hope that it will somehow open, although that may defy logic and although we may know deep down that no goodness will come from it. We wait. We choose to wait. We choose to have hope, and we're always scared that the door will open the second we walk away. We claim ownership over what we do not have and fear losing it, although it really never was ours.